DRAKONIS RIFTER ARRIVAL

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters
WHAT: People fall out of a rift, get attacked, and discover that they are trapped and alone.
WHEN: Drakonis 10
WHERE: A snowy pit.
NOTES: This month, the arrival log is CLOSED to new rifters only. Don't worry, there will be chances for everyone else to meet (and help!) them soon.

I. ARRIVAL

You were asleep—deeply or fitfully, for the last time or just resting your eyes for a moment–and then you were not. And wherever you were was not, anymore, replaced by nothing but the sensation of falling, tumbling into endless, bottomless nothing. If this were still a dream, you would wake before you hit the ground. You can't die in a dream, they say. At least in some worlds.

In this world, you wake with a jolt when you hit the ground, soft for an instant and then bone-jarringly hard. You've landed in a pile of loose snow, beneath which is more snow, frozen solid, and all around you are walls of more snow, tinted by the shifting green gash in the air. There are other people finding their feet after a similarly sprawling arrival, and then emerging from the rift in your wake are a number of hunched, greyish creatures in tattered robes that shuffle about, keeping their distance as they send sharp spikes of ice flying toward you.

They're accompanied by floating beings with too many insect-like arms, and creatures that seem to emerge from the ground like plumes of magma, their fire causing the walls to drip and turning the ground beneath your feet treacherously slick. There is also one giant scarecrow, nearly twenty feet tall, and with giant scalpel blades for arms. It is dressed in a tuxedo, a fine bolo tie, and a cowboy hat, and accompanied by five normal-sized scarecrows in matching suits and hats. Needless to say, they are not friendly either. There are many of you, but even more enemies.

If that all weren't enough there's also a narrow splinter of light in the same sickly green as whatever brought you here, now glowing out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions, and seems to call your attention back to the rift.

II. TRAPPED

After the first few waves of demons are defeated (there will be no more scarecrows), there will be a lull long enough to regroup and take stock of surroundings. You appear to be at the bottom of a deep crevasse, the walls stretching high above your heads. The space is only about 20 feet wide at its center, but nearly fifty yards long, tapering narrower at the ends, with the rift located near the southern end. There is no exit, no cracks or tunnels leading away, and no hand or footholds in the sheer walls. There are some animal bones scattered about, but no evidence of other living creatures. There is also no evidence of other people, here or above you.

Luckily, the rift has spilled out a great deal of crap along with you and all the demons. There is a gigantic cake several feet tall half-smushed into one wall, its ten tiers delicately decorated all in white fondant, with whorling patterns and flowers made of frosting. Each layer is a different flavor, ranging from the mundane (chocolate, vanilla, carrot) to the bizarre (strawberry & pickle, spicy lemon olive, red velvet mackerel). There are also some actual mackerel, a heap of live fish having spilled through the rift and scattered about the crevasse during the battle, along with bundles of dried (but now soggy) cornstalks.

You can see a narrow patch of sky above and sunlight does filter down to you, for the few hours of the day that there is any sunlight at all. Given the reflection off all the snow and ice, during those daylight hours it is pleasantly bright, though tinted a bit blue (and green by the rift). Unfortunately, daylight only lasts about eight hours, and it is frequently cloudy, which leaves the crevasse dimly lit, as if in a perpetual dusk. At night it will be utterly pitch black except for the rift's eerie glow. It's also very cold, with temperatures remaining below freezing during the day and well below at night.

III. LOST

Whether with magic or creative ice-pick improvisation, scaling the walls of the crevasse is not impossible—but there is minimal reward for the effort. Fully exposed to the wind, it's colder on the surface than in the crevasse, and on the third day there's a whiteout blizzard that reduces visibility to twenty feet for hours. Even when the weather is clear, though, there's not much to see. The land above is a wasteland of ice, snow, and wind, without visible vegetation or landmarks other than monotonous gentle hills. The only disruption to the landscape in any direction is about a hundred yards north of the rift, where spots of color and piles of snow mark what is, on closer inspection, an abandoned camp.

Whoever was there before built low walls out of packed snow to block some of the wind and dug enough snow caves to sleep a dozen people, though a few have since caved in. There's no food—there was food, before, but overturned crates and animal tracks suggest the area is not as devoid of life as it looks—but there are thick fur blankets and sets of boots or outerwear. More than a dozen, in a variety of different sizes. Almost like they were expecting poorly-clothed company.

Maybe someone was coming for you. Maybe they'll be back. Or maybe not.



[ ooc | The rift will continue to spit out demons at semi-regular intervals. After the rifters defeat the first couple waves of demons, the pace of these reinforcements will slow—instead of a few minutes, it may be a few hours until the next batch comes. It is possible for your characters to close the rift themselves, but because they have no idea what they're doing it will require trial and error to figure out how, and all (or near enough) of them working together to succeed. This should take at least two days to manage.

Other than the stuff described in the post and the inventories everyone arrived with (as approved in your apps; please don't suddenly remember some other useful things in your characters' pockets) there is nothing in the crevasse except snow, ice, rock, and animal bones. But don't worry, we promise we're not leaving your characters all to die. Your characters have arrived in the Sunless Lands, and the Inquisition is on its way. When the mod plot post goes up this coming week, it will include a prompt to rescue all of you. Until that time, please refrain from RPing elsewhere in the game and enjoy this exclusive opportunity to bond with your rift-mates.

Your characters will be alone for approximately five days IC. Please keep them from wandering off too far, since that will make it implausible for the Inquisition to find and rescue them and then you won't get to play in the game. If they would insist on trying, you're welcome to use adverse weather, ice collapsing into other caves beneath them, or whatever other natural obstacles necessary to stall their progress. ]

Comments

[letoldthingsdie]

The girl catches him off balance, twisting and pulling him so that his arm is behind him and she has it in her grasp. He hadn't even been sure he wanted to help her and her companion. Now he was sure. If he didn't get too badly injured by the monster he had every intention of choking the life out of her for her impudence.

With a surprised yell he pushes out with the Force, a barrier of invisible life energy to separate the monster from him. She had tried to push him towards the beast but he had slowed the approach with a quick action. That would only be temporary, however. It was still likely to push back at them, to approach with a rage that burned like flames. Its entire being seemed to encompass that rage.

"Stop." He commands it, pushing out again to immobilize it. The being stilled, momentarily surprised before it roared at him. If the girl wanted to, she and her sickly partner could run. Or cower in fear. He didn't care which. He would deal with the blonde later.

He could already feel the tremor in the Force he had pushed around the monster, its struggles obvious to anyone looking at it. He tried to feed off of the anger he felt, mostly towards the girl who had shoved him, to hold the creature still. It didn't seem to get the message. Before long the hold he had on it snapped like tendrils and it charged anew.

[coppelganger]

Even sick as she is, Sarah's no idiot. She knows her sister will cause a distraction. Whether it's by stabbing the guy who's approached them, or through some other method. And sure enough, there goes Helena, being... Helena. Sarah watches, feeling almost drugged, as her sister yanks the guy nearly to his knees and then twists him around and shoves him toward the giant thing. The giant thing that's on fucking fire.

It's the sight of that, the demon still approaching, that makes Sarah move again. Her limbs ache, and the combination of fever and snow is making her shake all over, but she pushes herself to her feet and grabs Helena by the shoulder. "We've gotta get out of here," she yells through chattering teeth. Biggest understatement of maybe her entire life.

The dark haired guy Helena shoved will have to fend for himself, as far as Sarah's concerned.

[strangel]

They need to move, but Helena almost wants to watch out of sheer fascination. It distracts her for a moment, a sort of focus settling over her as she intently watches the tall one, the Death-like man, holding the creature transfixed, before it breaks free.

"Yes," she says, a little surprised. She knew they had a connection, she and her Sestra. She is just a little surprised to find Sarah finally willing to go with her. One of her arms loops around Sarah, hand slick and bloody as she grips the sheet Sarah tumbled through with, and brings one of Sarah's hands across her shoulders so they can move.

But— fights are not always going how she would plan them. As they turn and she goes to rush Sarah away, a another tall, dark figure approaches. The giant scarecrow, dressed up in a bridegroom's suit, cowboy hat perched on its head. It swings at then with long, scalpel-like arms. They can't get past it with that reach and Sarah hurt, and she cannot leave her sestra.

"I'll keep you safe." And, over her shoulder, "Tall man, we are needings your fire monster."

[letoldthingsdie]

He makes an irritated sound, regretting already that he stopped to talk to these girls and ask what the hell was going on. He regretted it immensely. Yet he does as asked, pulling the monster he's trying so hard to restrain towards them, like an invisible hand has gotten hold of it, and steering it towards the other to crash into it. They could very well team up on them. These girls could very well leave him for dead.

"Why the hell aren't you running?!" He calls after them, moving in their direction. It would be so easy to just slice through both creatures if his lightsaber worked and yet he was left with out. Not entirely powerless but still not powerful enough. He was also expending a lot of energy just keeping the two creatures busy.

[coppelganger]

Good question. Why the hell aren't they running? Sarah would also like to know. Not that it looks like there's anywhere to run to, but details. Sarah stumbles back, staying upright only because Helena's propping her up. The whole scene feels like some sort of hallucination, actually, and part of her wonders if she's still dreaming. But the cold biting into her feels pretty real, and the ache in her head feels pretty real, and the sudden flash as the giant scarecrow lights up like Burning Man feels pretty damn real, too.

"Helena—" Her voice chokes off, though from shock or simply because she has no idea what to say next, she can't tell.

[strangel]

"Knife hands," she replies, as if that is explanation enough for not running. Knight hands, long reach, her twin barely able to stand. She could not risk Sarah like that, she was too precious, her twin. Too important. She could not risk her, could not risk that important light being extinguished. Not even in dreams, and this no longer feels like a dream.

The creature is burning, as it should. The way she would like to see the Johanssens burn. (The way she will see them burn, one day.) There is an acrid smell as the flame consumes the material of the groom's suit, smoke billowing off it and flowing back towards them all. It flails though, and while it's body might be burning up, the scalpel arms swings dangerously.

Plus side: one of them swipes the fire monster. Down side: there is a twenty-foot on fire scarecrow swinging around giant scalpels, and a fire monster reaching towards them, with its terrible, glowing flesh and sinewy arms.

She unceremoniously shoves Sarah backwards, to out some distance between her and the monsters, and Helena throws herself, knife in hand, towards the fire monster, hacking at one of its arms with her knife.

[letoldthingsdie]

Kylo shakes his head, watching the blonde rush forward and strike out at the fiery beast. He had been watching in awe as the large monster with bladed hands burned, actually proud of his handy work. It was still alive but it was suffering immensely and to his satisfaction. He would see it to it's death.

He had no weapon but the force, but he could wield it to his advantage. Kylo uses it to tear at the burning monster, pulling one of it's bladed hands from its socket to drop at his feet. He intended to use it as a weapon, to kill the two beasts if he could or defend himself in the attempt they made on his life.

He runs forward with an enraged cry, diving as low as he can out of reach of the burning monster's other hand and aiming to hack at one of his legs. It wasn't a lightsaber in his hands but it would do. It would strike the blow he needed it to. Leaving the girls - Helena, the blonde was called - to their own devices was all fine and good. He was enjoying the carnage, enjoying the thrill of battle. It left his blood pumping and his body pushed to it's limit. This was what made him feel truly alive.

[strangel]

Watching the Man like Death rush forward, the surge of adrenaline, Helena grins. It is a wild sort of smile, uncontrolled. There is something frantic and feral in her, and as the stranger takes the giant surgical blade to attack, Helena spins the knife in her hands, and kicks snow into the fire devil's face to blind it. It roars, enraged by the cold, and Helena moves around it with quick, vicious strikes, moving in and away fast enough that the flames can't bite into her flesh.

It roars, attempts to retreat, and crashes into the giant scarecrow again as it falters in its weakening form.

Trying to lash at the man in his black robes, the scarecrow's remaining arm slashes a severe wound across the fire devil, and Helena exhales a strange, gleeful rasp as it bellows and falters. She is keeping her sestra safe. She will always keep her sestra safe.

[letoldthingsdie]

Kylo gives another swing of his blade at the creatures still far too close for comfort. He would injure them before they could regroup, kill them if he could. The fiery beast's roar shakes the ground around him, leaving his focus split between the two creatures. Helena seemed to know how to fight and defend herself. The other girl seemed far too ill to do much else.

The confusion leaves the two monsters to injure one another. That was fine by him. The sooner they died the sooner they could move on. He pushes out, hand raised. He wanted to mold the Force around the two creatures to knock them off balance again, give the girl an opening she could use.